Sunday, May 05, 2013

A bad idea to carry through

Remember when writing about the badness of the Bush administration was enough to be accused of treason by conservatives?

Those people have gotten over it quickly.

Washington's apparently really gotten bad since 2009.

The Open Carry March in Washington is apparently a serious idea being seriously quasi-kickstarted by serious people. And why not? What better way to show love for America than to offer a threatening message to Capitol Hill over a straw man, while violating local ordinances?

I asked my sister, a once and future D.C. resident and Republican, what she thought of this march. Her response was something like, "yeah, that's not gonna happen." Turns out that city officials really, really frown upon private firearms within close proximity of Capitol Hill. I imagine that the policy didn't take effect recently.

Which means that if people actually go through with this open-carry march, they could be arrested on felony charges. And convicted felons can't possess firearms. Which is government suppression, I guess?

This march is an insane idea; I suspect I'd feel that way even if I opposed gun control. What's the point of walking around with loaded weapons other than to imply a threat? And if that's the case, why say you'll back down if there's a confrontation? There will be a confrontation, because no one won't confront thousands of people toting guns. Either there will be a firefight, which will destroy any illusion of guns equaling freedom, or the marchers will back down, contradicting their message. Neither possibility benefits the pro-gun crowd. And given the toxicity of the comments on the march's Facebook page, they need all the good press they can get.